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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This is a beautifully written book, like reading poetry at times. I didn't like Lopez's sections on history as much because at times it felt like naming dates and people. But as soon as he got back to philosophizing or describing natural processes, I enjoyed it. I apparently have 65 highlights in my ebook (many are just one word things I meant to look up later), so here is a selection:
"Coming awkwardly down a scree slope of frost-riven limestone you make a glass-tinkling clatter -- and at a distance a tundra grizzly rises on its hind legs to study you; the dish-shaped paws of its front legs deathly still, the stance so human it is unnerving." p. 13
"We have been telling ourselves the story of what we represent in the land for 40,000 years. At the heart of this story, I think, is a simple, abiding belief: it is possible to live wisely on the land, and to live well. And in behaving respectfully towards all that the land contains, it is possible to imagine a stifling ignorance falling away from us." p. 17
"Our intimacy lacks historical depth, and is still largely innocent of what is obscure and subtle there." p. 27
"As temperate-zone people, we have long been ill-disposed toward deserts and expanses of tundra and ice. They have been wastelands for us; historically we have not cared at all what happened in them or to them. I am inclined to think, however, that their value will one day prove to be inestimable to us." p. 28
"Our first wisdom as a species, that unique metaphorical knowledge that distinguishes us, grew out of such an intimacy with the earth; and, however far we may have come since that time, it did not seem impossible to me that night to go back and find it." p. 52
"They [muskoxen] were so intensely good at being precisely what they were." p. 83
"Over our meal, Cliff Hickey, the senior anthropologist in the group, said of the Copper Eskimo, 'You ignore at your peril the variety in human culture.'" p. 83
"Polar bear milk has the consistency of cream. Those who have tasted it say it tastes like cod liver oil and smells of seals or fish. It is richer than whale milk and higher in protein than seal milk." p. 96
"These events underscore something critical in the biology of large predators: the range of capability in the species. No matter how long you watch, you will not see all it can do." p. 101
"The kernel of indisputable information is a dot in space; interpretations grow out of the desire to make this point a line, to give it a direction. The directions in which it can be sent, the uses to which is can be put by a culturally, professionally, and geographically diverse society, are almost without limit." p. 129
"To understand why a region is different, to show an initial deference toward its mysteries, is to guard against a kind of provincialism that vitiates the imagination, that stifles the capacity to envision what is different." p. 172
"Hunting expertise, the ability of a man and a woman to keep a family going, the kind of knowledge of life that grew from patience and determination -- such attributes were not as highly regarded by the interlopers, who sought to install other virtues: promptness, personal cleanliness, self-improvement, and a high degree of orderliness and scheduling in daily life." p. 187
"They are afraid because they accept fully what is violent and tragic in nature. It is a fear tied to their knowledge that sudden, cataclysmic events are as much a part of life, of really living, as are the moments when one pauses to look at something beautiful." p. 192
"Most Eskimos are not opposed to changing their way of life, but they want the timing and direction of change to be of their own choosing. 'There is no insistence,' a man once told me, 'on living as hard a life as possible.'" p. 195
"This machinery [icebreakers, etc.] compresses time and space, and comforts us because of the authority with which it keeps danger at bay. From these quarters, its scale reduced, we appraise the landscape very differently." p. 208
"That the erection of the cathedrals was the last wild stride European man made before falling back into the confines of his intellect." p. 235
"We are clearly indebted as a species to the play of our intelligence; we trust our future to it; but we do not know whether intelligence is the reason or whether intelligence is this desire to embrace and be embraced in the pattern that both theologians and physicists call God. Whether intelligence, in other words, is love." p. 236
"The differing landscapes of the earth are hard to know individually. They are as difficult to engage in conversation as wild animals. The complex feelings of affinity and self-assurance one feels with one's native place rarely develop again in another landscape." p. 240
"Our perceptions are colored by preconception and desire." p. 241
"Biologists are anxious about 'the tyranny of statistics' and 'the ascendency of the [computer] modeler,' about industry's desire for a 'standardized animals,' one that always behaves in predictable ways." p. 253
"He [Whorf] made people see that there were no primitive languages; and that there was no pool of thought from which all cultures drew their metaphysics. 'All observers', he cautioned, 'are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe.'" p. 258
"Travel on the schedule of the muskoxen." p. 267 (Someone should embroider this on a pillow OMG.)
"The popular image of a previously unknown region, writes J. Wreford Watson, is 'compounded of what men hope to find, what they look to find, how they set about finding, how findings are fitted into their existing framework of thought, and how those findings are then expressed.' This says Watson, is what is actually 'found' in a new land." p. 274
"I thought about the great desire among friends and colleagues and travelers who meet on the road, to share what they know, what they have seen and imagined. Not to have a shared understanding, but to share what one has come to understand. In such an atmosphere of mutual regard, in which each can roll out his or her maps with no fear of contradiction, of suspicion, or theft, it is possible to imagine the long, graceful strides of human history." p. 279
"What ever culture must eventually decide, actively debate and decide, is what of all that surrounds it, tangible and intangible, it will dismantle and turn into material wealth. And what of its cultural wealth, from the tradition of finding peace in the vision of an undisturbed hillside to a knowledge of how to finance a corporate merger, it will fight to preserve." p. 292
"As I sat reading in Yellowknife I was mindful of this, of the caution with which one should approach any journal, of the tendency to make a single appealing narrative stand for the entire experience or, worse, to stand in the place of experience." p. 342
"His [Kent] illusions about wilderness were always somewhat at odds with the requirements of daily life on the island, which caused him to reflect that 'the romance of [this] adventure hang on slender threads.'" p. 357
"That night I thought about the animals, and how the road had come up amidst them." p. 359
"I see no one. The human presence is in the logic of the machinery, the control of the unrefined oil, the wild liquid in the grid of pipes. There is nothing here for the oil but to follow instructions." p. 361
"The sensibility of many of the foremen and crew chiefs, to characterize the extreme, is colonial. The tone of voice is impatient, the vocabulary is economic. The mentality is largely innocent of history and arctic ecology, cavalier about human psychological requirements, and manipulative." p. 364
"In the mines and oil fields, of course, were other, different men, who criticized in private conversation what was being done 'for the money.' As a group, they felt a responsibility for what they were doing." p. 365
"They shook their heads over industrial mismanagement, that humorless, deskbound ignorance that brings people and land together in such a way that both the land and the people suffer." p. 365
"By his simple appreciation of the company, by his acceptance of these unfamiliar circumstances, he made everyone in the tent feel comfortable. The dignity of the occasion arose from an atmosphere of courtesy that he alone could have established." p. 368
"The things in the land fit together perfectly, even though they are always changing. I wish the order of my life to be arranged in the same way I find the light, the slight movement of the wind, the voice of a bird, the heading of a seed pod I see before me." p. 370
"One of the oldest dreams of mankind is to find a dignity that might include all living things. And one of the greatest human longings must be to bring such dignity to one's own dreams, for each to find his or her own life exemplary in some way. The struggle to do this is a struggle because an adult sensibility must find some way to include all the dark threads of life." p. 370
"The killing [of an animal] jars me, in spite of my regard for the simple elements of human survival here." p. 374
"The given reality, the real landscape, is 'horror within magnificence, absurdity within intelligibility, suffering within joy,' in the words of Albert Schweitzer. We do not esteem as highly these lessons in paradox" p. 378
"But there are in fact no primitive or even primeval landscapes. Neither are there permanent landscapes. And nowhere is the land empty or underdeveloped." p. 378
"If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must liv in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light." p. 380
"Coming awkwardly down a scree slope of frost-riven limestone you make a glass-tinkling clatter -- and at a distance a tundra grizzly rises on its hind legs to study you; the dish-shaped paws of its front legs deathly still, the stance so human it is unnerving." p. 13
"We have been telling ourselves the story of what we represent in the land for 40,000 years. At the heart of this story, I think, is a simple, abiding belief: it is possible to live wisely on the land, and to live well. And in behaving respectfully towards all that the land contains, it is possible to imagine a stifling ignorance falling away from us." p. 17
"Our intimacy lacks historical depth, and is still largely innocent of what is obscure and subtle there." p. 27
"As temperate-zone people, we have long been ill-disposed toward deserts and expanses of tundra and ice. They have been wastelands for us; historically we have not cared at all what happened in them or to them. I am inclined to think, however, that their value will one day prove to be inestimable to us." p. 28
"Our first wisdom as a species, that unique metaphorical knowledge that distinguishes us, grew out of such an intimacy with the earth; and, however far we may have come since that time, it did not seem impossible to me that night to go back and find it." p. 52
"They [muskoxen] were so intensely good at being precisely what they were." p. 83
"Over our meal, Cliff Hickey, the senior anthropologist in the group, said of the Copper Eskimo, 'You ignore at your peril the variety in human culture.'" p. 83
"Polar bear milk has the consistency of cream. Those who have tasted it say it tastes like cod liver oil and smells of seals or fish. It is richer than whale milk and higher in protein than seal milk." p. 96
"These events underscore something critical in the biology of large predators: the range of capability in the species. No matter how long you watch, you will not see all it can do." p. 101
"The kernel of indisputable information is a dot in space; interpretations grow out of the desire to make this point a line, to give it a direction. The directions in which it can be sent, the uses to which is can be put by a culturally, professionally, and geographically diverse society, are almost without limit." p. 129
"To understand why a region is different, to show an initial deference toward its mysteries, is to guard against a kind of provincialism that vitiates the imagination, that stifles the capacity to envision what is different." p. 172
"Hunting expertise, the ability of a man and a woman to keep a family going, the kind of knowledge of life that grew from patience and determination -- such attributes were not as highly regarded by the interlopers, who sought to install other virtues: promptness, personal cleanliness, self-improvement, and a high degree of orderliness and scheduling in daily life." p. 187
"They are afraid because they accept fully what is violent and tragic in nature. It is a fear tied to their knowledge that sudden, cataclysmic events are as much a part of life, of really living, as are the moments when one pauses to look at something beautiful." p. 192
"Most Eskimos are not opposed to changing their way of life, but they want the timing and direction of change to be of their own choosing. 'There is no insistence,' a man once told me, 'on living as hard a life as possible.'" p. 195
"This machinery [icebreakers, etc.] compresses time and space, and comforts us because of the authority with which it keeps danger at bay. From these quarters, its scale reduced, we appraise the landscape very differently." p. 208
"That the erection of the cathedrals was the last wild stride European man made before falling back into the confines of his intellect." p. 235
"We are clearly indebted as a species to the play of our intelligence; we trust our future to it; but we do not know whether intelligence is the reason or whether intelligence is this desire to embrace and be embraced in the pattern that both theologians and physicists call God. Whether intelligence, in other words, is love." p. 236
"The differing landscapes of the earth are hard to know individually. They are as difficult to engage in conversation as wild animals. The complex feelings of affinity and self-assurance one feels with one's native place rarely develop again in another landscape." p. 240
"Our perceptions are colored by preconception and desire." p. 241
"Biologists are anxious about 'the tyranny of statistics' and 'the ascendency of the [computer] modeler,' about industry's desire for a 'standardized animals,' one that always behaves in predictable ways." p. 253
"He [Whorf] made people see that there were no primitive languages; and that there was no pool of thought from which all cultures drew their metaphysics. 'All observers', he cautioned, 'are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe.'" p. 258
"Travel on the schedule of the muskoxen." p. 267 (Someone should embroider this on a pillow OMG.)
"The popular image of a previously unknown region, writes J. Wreford Watson, is 'compounded of what men hope to find, what they look to find, how they set about finding, how findings are fitted into their existing framework of thought, and how those findings are then expressed.' This says Watson, is what is actually 'found' in a new land." p. 274
"I thought about the great desire among friends and colleagues and travelers who meet on the road, to share what they know, what they have seen and imagined. Not to have a shared understanding, but to share what one has come to understand. In such an atmosphere of mutual regard, in which each can roll out his or her maps with no fear of contradiction, of suspicion, or theft, it is possible to imagine the long, graceful strides of human history." p. 279
"What ever culture must eventually decide, actively debate and decide, is what of all that surrounds it, tangible and intangible, it will dismantle and turn into material wealth. And what of its cultural wealth, from the tradition of finding peace in the vision of an undisturbed hillside to a knowledge of how to finance a corporate merger, it will fight to preserve." p. 292
"As I sat reading in Yellowknife I was mindful of this, of the caution with which one should approach any journal, of the tendency to make a single appealing narrative stand for the entire experience or, worse, to stand in the place of experience." p. 342
"His [Kent] illusions about wilderness were always somewhat at odds with the requirements of daily life on the island, which caused him to reflect that 'the romance of [this] adventure hang on slender threads.'" p. 357
"That night I thought about the animals, and how the road had come up amidst them." p. 359
"I see no one. The human presence is in the logic of the machinery, the control of the unrefined oil, the wild liquid in the grid of pipes. There is nothing here for the oil but to follow instructions." p. 361
"The sensibility of many of the foremen and crew chiefs, to characterize the extreme, is colonial. The tone of voice is impatient, the vocabulary is economic. The mentality is largely innocent of history and arctic ecology, cavalier about human psychological requirements, and manipulative." p. 364
"In the mines and oil fields, of course, were other, different men, who criticized in private conversation what was being done 'for the money.' As a group, they felt a responsibility for what they were doing." p. 365
"They shook their heads over industrial mismanagement, that humorless, deskbound ignorance that brings people and land together in such a way that both the land and the people suffer." p. 365
"By his simple appreciation of the company, by his acceptance of these unfamiliar circumstances, he made everyone in the tent feel comfortable. The dignity of the occasion arose from an atmosphere of courtesy that he alone could have established." p. 368
"The things in the land fit together perfectly, even though they are always changing. I wish the order of my life to be arranged in the same way I find the light, the slight movement of the wind, the voice of a bird, the heading of a seed pod I see before me." p. 370
"One of the oldest dreams of mankind is to find a dignity that might include all living things. And one of the greatest human longings must be to bring such dignity to one's own dreams, for each to find his or her own life exemplary in some way. The struggle to do this is a struggle because an adult sensibility must find some way to include all the dark threads of life." p. 370
"The killing [of an animal] jars me, in spite of my regard for the simple elements of human survival here." p. 374
"The given reality, the real landscape, is 'horror within magnificence, absurdity within intelligibility, suffering within joy,' in the words of Albert Schweitzer. We do not esteem as highly these lessons in paradox" p. 378
"But there are in fact no primitive or even primeval landscapes. Neither are there permanent landscapes. And nowhere is the land empty or underdeveloped." p. 378
"If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must liv in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light." p. 380
5 Stars
(Audiobook)
Keen and thoughtful observations of a land most will never visit or understand, beautifully expressed by the author and brilliantly narrated by James Naughton. I would highly recommend this book (particularly in this form) to anyone that enjoys nature or nature writing.
(Audiobook)
Keen and thoughtful observations of a land most will never visit or understand, beautifully expressed by the author and brilliantly narrated by James Naughton. I would highly recommend this book (particularly in this form) to anyone that enjoys nature or nature writing.